Respected Surgeon Urges Others to Speak Out Against Forced Organ Donation in China

Surgeons
in the Western world should publicly oppose the forced organ harvesting
of prisoners in China, a respected transplantation physician said in a
recent interview.

Professor Jan Lerut, former president of the European Society
for Organ Transplantation, said that the practice of killing people for
their body parts was "awful" and "should not exist".

"I think that what we should do on a personal and national
level is to object as much as possible and to make people aware that
this is not the way to go," he told NTDTV reporters, referring to the
unethical practice.

"If the people become aware then the politicians become aware
then you go higher up to the United Nations and other organisations
defending human rights."

Dr. Lerut said that the practice of forced organ removal was a
violation of the principles of free volition and non-obligation that
made donation an act of charity and "social togetherness". Moreover he
stated that most surgeons in Europe object "not always on an
international level but always on a personal or institutional level":

"For instance in my hospital if someone wants to come from
China to learn about transplantation he must declare that he is not
involved in the practices that are going on in China in relation to
forced organ donation as it is done today."

"I think that everyone should object in his own way, and if everyone objects then it will have a result."

Dr. Lerut, who has worked as a transplantation surgeon for 25
years, argued that not only does China's forced harvesting represent a
dereliction of ethics; it is also damaging what is essentially an
innocuous practice in the West:

"Every negative statement about organ donation wherever in the
world undermines all the efforts that people do to promote organ
donation and organ transplantation in countries where these things are
regulated."

Dr. Lerut's comments come soon after the chair of the ethics
committee of the British Transplantation Society, Professor Stephen
Wigmore, called for a "full, frank" international enquiry into China's
organ harvesting and urged for a consensus statement from
transplantation societies condemning the practice.

During an international organ transplantation conference in
London on the 11th and 12th of May, 47 professionals signed a petition
initiated by pressure group 'Friends of Falun Gong', condemning forced
organ donation in China and calling for an "urgent open and independent
investigation into all prisons, detention centres, labour camps and
related hospitals by the United Nations, World Health Organisation, and
other relevant international organisations without the Chinese
government's sanctions on information."

Among the signatories were the Chief of the transplantation
centre in Czech University Hospital, President of the Belgium
Transplantation Coordinators, and the Chairman of Urology Department in
Fujita Health University, Japan.